Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2025
  • B.A., Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin, 2019
  • B.S., Neuroscience, University of Texas, Austin, 2019
Professional Honors
  • NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Precision Medicine (T15), 2025–2026
  • William Orr Dingwall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship on the Neural Foundations of Language, 2024–2025
  • Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation Fellowship, 2023
  • NIH Predoctoral Fellowship (NRSA F31), 2023–2025
  • Journal of Science Policy & Governance Policy Paper Competition 1st Place Winner, 2022
Professional Affiliations
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
  • Organization for Human Brain Mapping
  • Flux Society
  • Fetal, Infant, Toddler Neuroimaging Group
  • International Society for Autism Research
  • Society for Neuroscience

Dr. Wagner is a neuroscientist with extensive experience in human subjects research, quantitative analysis, and scientific communication. She uses her expertise to understand how humans interact with their world and applies this knowledge to evaluate complex scenarios including on-road accidents involving automobiles, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians. Additionally, she evaluates human factors contributions to trip/slip-and-fall incidents, industrial accidents, and product-related injuries, including warning comprehension and compliance. 

Before joining Exponent, Dr. Wagner was a postdoctoral scientist at UCLA where she integrated MRI, genomic, and behavioral datasets in order to understand human development in infancy and toddlerhood. She received her Ph.D.[DC1]  in Neuroscience from UCLA, where she led preclinical brain mapping studies to investigate language acquisition and early-emerging symptoms of autism in infants.   

Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Wagner studied psycholinguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she developed a deep understanding of how humans learn and behave. As a consultant with Exponent, Dr. Wagner's complementary backgrounds in behavioral psychology and computational neuroscience give her the ability to deliver rigorous insights about complex situations.